Week 3

Day 1

On Amtrak again en route San Francisco to Seattle (the equivalent of Brisbane to Cairns). Not a good start the initial departure is delayed by 4 hours, which eventually becomes a 10 hour delay, which meant we arrived at Emeryville for a 9.20pm departure, and finally left at 6.30 am, spending an uncomfortable night at the station. Having learnt from previous Amtrak dining experiences we bought a range of fresh and dried fruits nuts from the San Francisco Farmer's Market.

Brekkie: and Lunch Fresh and Dried Fruits, Nuts

Dinner: Due to the delays Amtrak provided a complimentary evening meal, they shouldn’t have bothered; it was a creamy chicken and mushroom (yuk) with rice, worst meal of the trip to date, rating 3.

Day 2 Seattle, arriving at 5.30 am, order of business was a much needed sleep, shower and a green tea.

L: As we were staying in a self-contained apartment, we made a bee line for the local supermarket, which had fresh bread, fruit and veg, takeaway meals, grog etc. We loaded up with some orange juice, fresh multi grain bread, honey-smoked ham, Cheese, Lettuce, Tomatoes, and Cucumbers. We made up some fresh ham and salad sandwiches. Went down a treat, rating 7.5. 

Drunken Pork at Yanni's

D: We were staying a couple of hundred metres from a strip of bars and restaurants, so we opted for Yannis Greek restaurant.   Having been deprived of a decent hot meal, we started with an appetizer of Marinated Olives, Feta Cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and warm pita bread. I then had a main of Egg and Lemon soup, Drunken Pork, which was 2 marinated pork fillets, topped with red onion, capsicum, bacon and yogurt, accompanied by, rice, carrots, zucchini and bread, very good meal, but a case of eyes bigger than stomach, rating 8.

Drinks, the local ale house bar was about 200 metres from accommodation, they had happy hour on 3-6p.m. daily, so we took the opportunity to sample some local tap drafts, they were

Mirror Pond Pale Ale 5%, a little too wheaty for my liking, rating 6.5

74th St Ale House

Maritime Islander Pale Ale 6%, a nice drop, so good I had to have a second pint, rating 7.5

Lizzie even tried the Blackthorn cider 6% on tap, as you know cider is a preferred drink, so it was rated superior to Strongbow, Mercury and even her favourite 5 seeds. Served, ice cold over ice, rating 9. The products over all were enjoyed immensely, so much so we vowed to return for the next happy hour.

Day 3 Seattle

B:   OJ, Green Tea, multi grain toast with tomato and heaps of pepper rating 7.0.

L: Visited the famous Pike Public Markets in downtown Seattle, best markets by far to date. There is a huge range of fruit and veg, fresh seafood, meats, deli products and food stalls. Showing some patriotism, we opted for Russian piroshkys, which are yeast based pastries with fillings, flavourings. We tried, smoked salmon pate, Cheese and Potato, and Cinnamon and Chocolate, weren’t too bad rating 7.0, however not the genuine article as bubka used to boil hers and these were baked.

Drinks: True to our word we returned to the alehouse, as they had a fresh tapped keg on the bar this happy hour, which I tried:

Boundary Bay Ale 6.7%, too malty for my liking. Resorted to the Maritime Islander Pale Ale 6% and the third pint confirmed my earlier 7.5 rating.

Lizzie again had the Blackthorn hard cider and it came up trumps again.

D: We went for Mexican; I had a beef taco (soft) with salsa, salad and a Pork Enchilada with refried beans, rice, guacamole, salsa and a nice hot chilli sauce rating 7.0. Lizzie had chicken burrito with all the extras, with a soft drink each the total cost less than $15.

Day 4 Seattle

B: OJ, green tea, Toast, fresh fruit from markets rating 7.0.

L: Took a huge ferry for a visit to Bainbridge Island which is a large Island in Ellis Bay, straight out from downtown Seattle, about a 30- 40 minute trip. Visited a little bakery, where we had a cup of much needed warming soup, accompanied by fresh thick sliced multigrain bread and butter, mine was black bean and vegetables, nice and spicy, Lizzie opted for Pea and Ham, rating 7.5 

D: As we were staying in a self-contained apartment and had visited the Pike Public Markets, we decided to have our first home cooked meal of the trip. 

Wholesome Homecooked meal - first in 3 weeks.

We bought some fresh wild salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper and fried in a little butter and olive oil. We also bought some small potatoes, which we boiled, and added a fresh salad, we went the whole hog bought fresh raspberries ( which were beautiful and sweet) for desert, accompanied by a bottle of decent rose, largie of Stella Artois, and finished with a nice chocolate, rating 8.5.

Day 5 Departing Seattle for Chicago (47 hours on the train) 

B: OJ, Green Tea, Toast Fresh Fruit rating 7.0

L: As this was going to be our last hot meal before the train trip, we went back to Pike Public Markets, where we found Kasoori Grill, which was a Nepalese and Indian restaurant, and enjoyed the $9,95 buffet lunch, there were 18 choices, I sampled, ginger soup, daal, pakoras, vegetable curry, pakora curry,  basmati rice, lamb korma. Chicken Tikka Marsala and naan bread, desert was cardoman rice with almonds and mango mousse, rating 8.0.

D: On train had home prepared sandwiches, fruits etc. rating 7.0

Day 6 On train enroute Seattle to Chicago.

B: as we hadn’t sampled breakfast on the train we fronted up (big mistake) and had powdered scrambled eggs, with potatoes (could have had grits- cornmeal) with sweet croissant could have had raisin bread, rating 4.5.

L: Homemade sandwiches and fruit rating 7.0

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D: Fronted the café and had a hot dog, simply because they are hard to f..k up, rating 6.5

Day 7 on Amtrak

B&L Fresh and dried fruits rating 7.0.

D: Arrived in Chicago, showered, rested and then found Portillos and Barnellis combined Italian, Burger, Hot Dogs, Subs, huge place, with order ahead takeaways of all of the above, an unbelievable place seat 200+, and a thriving take away. We opted to dine in, I had, Chicken Parmegana with penne pasta, marinara sauce, garden salad and garlic bread, followed by chocolate and vanilla ice cream, lizzie had the house chocolate cake, a great meal, rating 8.0.